Here are resources on the 1984 consecration of Russia

CNA Staff   By CNA Staff

March 15, 2022 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 3 Print

 

Our Lady of Fatima. / Joseph Ferrara Our Lady of Fatima in LA Archdiocese via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Denver Newsroom, Mar 15, 2022 / 15:50 pm (CNA).

With the announcement that Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary March 25, interest in the consecration of Russia, as requested by Our Lady of Fatima, has been renewed.

Below is an assortment of documents, collected by EWTN, relating to the request for consecration, and its fulfilment made in 1984 by Saint John Paul II and the bishops of the world.

 

Documents on Fatima & Memoirs of Sister Lucia (English Edition), Fatima Family Apostolate (1992). Translation of: Novos Documentos de Fátima, Introdução e Notas pelo P. Antonio Maria Martins, S.J., (Porto, 1984)

6 June 1930, Interview with Sr. Lucia

Fr. Gonçalves. As regards the salvation of poor Russia, what is it that is wanted or desired?

Sr. Lucia. If I am not mistaken, Our Dear Lord God promises to end the persecution of Russia, if the Holy Father condescends to make, and likewise ordains the Bishops of the Catholic World, to make a solemn and public act of reparation and consecration of Russia to the Most Holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary. In response to the end of this persecution, His Holiness is to promise to approve of and recommend the practice of the already mentioned devotion of reparation. [Five First Saturdays]

 

1936 Letter of Sr. Lucia to Fr. Gonçalvez

Pontevedra, May 18,1936

Reverend Senhor,

… About the other question whether it would be good to insist in order to obtain the consecration of Russia, I answer in almost the same way as I answered the other times. I am sorry that it has not already been done. However, it is the same God who requested it, who has permitted this.

I am going to say what I feel about it, although it is a rather delicate matter to put in a letter due to the danger of it being lost and read, but I entrust it to the same God, because I am afraid I have not treated the matter with enough clarity.

Is it convenient to insist? I don’t know. It seems to me that if the Holy Father were to make it now, Our Lord would accept it, and fulfill His promise. Also there is no doubt that it would please Our Lord and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Intimately I have spoken to Our Lord about the subject, and not too long ago I asked Him why He would not convert Russia without the Holy Father making the consecration?

Christ: “Because I want my whole Church to acknowledge that consecration as a triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in order to later extend its cult and to place the devotion to this Immaculate Heart alongside the devotion to my Sacred Heart.”

Sr. Lucia: But my God, the Holy Father probably won’t believe me, unless You Yourself move him with a special inspiration.

Christ: “The Holy Father. Pray very much for the Holy Father. He will do it, but it will be too late. Nevertheless the Immaculate Heart of Mary will save Russia. It has been entrusted to Her.”

. . . Your most humble servant.

Maria Lucia de Jesus, R.S.D.

P.S.—About Mexico, Spain and France, you know that they are not included in the promise. We would have to count on the generosity of the Divine mercy. I don’t think I need to ask you to burn this letter as soon as you have read it. I suppose you do it out of prudence, therefore I will remain calm; I would also thank you for telling me if you have received it.*

The last time I spoke to the Bishop, he promised me that he would take care of this matter, but I don’t know if he did. I leave everything in the hands of God and in the care of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and I try to work in my field of action, which is sacrifice and prayer. Although these are as poor as I, I hope that the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary will accept them for the conversion of sinners.

I ask you to bless the one who does not forget you close to Jesus and Mary.

Maria Lucia de Jesus

*The Spanish Civil War was underway and the letter might be intercepted.

 

1937  Letter of Dom José Alves Correia da Silva (Bishop of Leiria) to Pope Pius XI

Most blessed Father:

Humbly prostrate at the feet of your Holiness, I judge that I must present the following to your Holiness:

There is in this diocese the sanctuary of our Lady of Fatima, which is the major center of piety in Portugal and whose devotion is dispersed through many nations. From the recommendations made by the most blessed Virgin in 1917, especially the devotion to the Holy Rosary, aversion to license, and penitence, it is clear that our Lady was preparing the battle against the communism from which Portugal has been preserved so far, despite its proximity to Spain. We Portuguese bishops pledged in the past year, after the retreat which we made at the sanctuary, to call a great national pilgrimage if until the end of 1937 our country will not be invaded by the terrible calamity of communism. Thanks to the Most Holy Virgin we have been at peace.

Of the three children to whom our Lady appeared, two have died and the one surviving is a religious at the Institute of Saint Dorothy in Spain. This religious asks me to communicate to your Holiness that, according to a heavenly revelation, the good God promises to end the persecution in Russia, should your Holiness deign to make and order that all the bishops of the Catholic World together make a solemn and public act of reparation and consecration of Russia to the most Holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary and approve and recommend the practice of reparatory devotion which consists in receiving Holy Communion, Reciting the Rosary, making fifteen minutes of meditation on the mysteries of the Rosary, all this on the first Saturday of five consecutive months.

This devotion would have as its purposes:

Reparation for the blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception, the Virginity, the Maternity of the most Blessed Virgin and the offenses against the images of our Lady; supplication for our children, in whose hearts has been implanted contempt and even hatred for the Mother of Heaven.

Here, most Holy Father, is the communication which I have received for transmission to your Holiness.

In the pilgrimages to the Sanctuary we pray always for your Holiness.

Finally, I humbly beg your Holiness for your Apostolic Blessing for this diocese, your humble pastor and the pilgrims of the sanctuary of our Lady of Fatima.

 

25 MARCH 1984 – ACT OF CONSECRATION, POPE ST. JOHN PAUL II, ST. PETER’S SQUARE

Consecration Timeline

Texts of the 1952 Consecration of Russia (Pope Pius XII) and the 1984 Consecration of the World (Pope John Paul II & the Bishops)

29 August 1989, Letter to Sr. Mary of Bethlehem                                      

J.+ M. Pax Christi

Dear Sister Mary of Bethlehem:

Received your letter and, although I have very little time at my disposal I will answer your question which is: Is the Consecration of the world, according to the request of Our Lady, made?

On Oct. 31, 1942, His Holiness Pius XII made the Consecration. I was asked if it was made as Our Lady requested. I answered “NO,” because it was not made in union with all the bishops of the world.

Later, on May 13, 1967, His Holiness Paul VI made the Consecration. I was asked if it was made as Our Lady requested. I responded “NO,” for the same reason, it was not made in union with all the bishops of the world.

On May 13, 1982, His Holiness John Paul II made the Consecration. I was asked if it was made. I responded “NO.” It was not made in union with all the bishops of the world.

Then this same Supreme Pontiff, John Paul II wrote to all the bishops of the world asking them to unite with him. He sent for the statute of Our Lady of Fátima — the one from the little Chapel to be taken to Rome and on March 25, 1984 – publicly – with the bishops who wanted to unite with His Holiness, made the Consecration as Our Lady requested. They then asked me if it was made as Our Lady requested, and I said, “YES.” Now it was made.

Why this urgency of God that this Consecration should be made in union with all the bishops of the world? Because this Consecration is a call for unity of all Christians – The Mystical Body of Christ – whose head is the Pope, the one, true representative of Christ on earth to whom the Lord confided the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and on this union depends the faith in the world and the charity which is the bond that must unite all of us in Christ, as that which He wants, and as He asked the Father: “As You, O Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You have sent Me. . . I in them, and You in Me; that they be made perfect in one, and the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me” (John 17:21-23).

As we see of the union depends the faith and the charity that must be the bond of our union in Christ, whose true representative on earth is the Pope.

A hug to your mother and my greetings to the rest of the family in union with prayers.

Coimbra, August 29,1989

Sr. Lucia

[Editor (Fr. Robert Fox) on the formula “In a special way we entrust and consecrate to you those individuals and nations which particularly need to be thus entrusted and consecrated” used by Pope John Paul II: “. . . Fr. Messias Coelho, theologian and editor of the Portuguese journal “Mesagem de Fátima,” answered the objection effectively from the philosophical and theological aspect. Sister Lucia, out of respect for the Pope, spoke of it the way our Holy Father did, using the word “world, ” which included Russia. In the letter the Pope sent to the world’s bishops, the Holy Father clarified that it was to renew both the consecration of the world (1942) and Russia (1952). This time he did so in union with the bishops.]

Time of the Consecrations

Text of the 1982 (Pope John Paul II) and the 1984 Consecration (the Pope and the Bishops)

 

 3 July 1990, Letter to Fr. Robert Fox, Fatima Family Apostolate

J.+M.

The Peace of Christ

Rev. Father Robert J. Foxx

I come to answer your question, “lf the consecration made by
Pope John Paul II on March 25, 1984 in union with all the bishops of
the World, accomplished the conditions for the conversion of Russia,
according to the request of Our Lady in Thy on June 13 of 1929? Yes,
it was accomplished, and since then I have said that it was made.
And I say that no other person responds for me,
it is I who receive and open all letters and respond to them.
In union of prayers.
Coimbra, July 3, 1990

Sister Lucia
(signature)

Photocopy of original

Interview with the former Archbishop of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God (Moscow), Catholic Herald, UK, (30 March 2017)

People in the former Soviet republic of Belarus have a great devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, and so does the archbishop who leads them. Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of Minsk, Belarus, who served as archbishop of Moscow from 1991 to 2007, speaks passionately about his devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, who appeared to three children in Portugal in 1917.

“The idea of Fatima, the idea of the conversion of Russia – it’s in my heart,” he told Catholic News Service during a late-March visit to Washington. “You will never find a church without a statue of Our Lady of Fatima in my country,” he added.

Archbishop Kondrusiewicz said he met three times with Carmelite Sister Lucia dos Santos, one of the three children who received the visions of Mary.

At the first meeting, in 1991, he told Sister Lucia that he was the Catholic archbishop in Moscow. “She asked several times, ‘Is it true?’”  “‘So,’ she said, ‘it means the prophecy of Fatima is fulfilled,’” Archbishop Kondrusiewicz said.

Part of the Fatima message – contained in a vision to Sister Lucia and her cousins – warned of the rise of communism, but also spoke of the ultimate triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, especially in Russia if the country was consecrated to her Immaculate Heart. Although some Fatima devotees have debated whether the consecrations were carried out properly, Popes Pius XII, Paul VI and John Paul II each entrusted the world, and Russia in particular, to Mary. Archbishop Kondrusiewicz said Sister Lucia assured him that it was done correctly. He said Sister Lucia told him to work with the Orthodox, and she sent a statue of Our Lady of Fatima with him to give to Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow, who was patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church at the time. “Later, I saw the statue on his table several times,” the archbishop said.

In honour of the 100th anniversary of the first time Mary spoke of Russia in the apparitions, he said, two pilgrimages from Belarus will meet in Fatima on July 13.

As far as Sister Lucia’s instructions to work with the Orthodox, the archbishop said the two churches applied to open counselling centres in abortion hospitals and received government permission.  “We saved a lot of lives,” he said, adding that the two churches along with some Protestant communities lobbied to change the Belarusian law to limit instances in which abortion is allowed.  . . . [End of article]

 

2003 Interview of Dr. Zugibe, who spoke to Sr. Lucia about the consecration

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This Sunday, where will the millions of palms come from?

April 13, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Washington D.C., Apr 13, 2019 / 04:53 pm (CNA).- With the arrival of Palm Sunday, Catholics across the globe will soon be handed spiky leaves as they walk into church. Some might fold them into elaborate little crosses. Kids will poke each other with them. But it’s safe to say most won’t know where they came from.

The feast commemorates Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem the week before his passion and crucifixion. The Gospels attest that as Jesus entered the city, crowds lay down palm branches and cloaks as he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.

For centuries, Christians have commemorated the feast day that begins Holy Week by waving branches of either palm or another local tree, as well as with liturgical processions and other celebrations.

In the U.S. alone, nearly 18,000 Catholic parishes will celebrate Palm Sunday by blessing and distributing palm branches to the faithful. That makes millions of palm leaves each year – and that doesn’t include all of the Protestant churches that observe the tradition.

Where do all those palms come from? While many Catholics know the final destination of their palms – they are burned to become ashes for next year’s Ash Wednesday – the origin of the leafy branches is less well known.

Credit: Klara Sasova / Unsplash

The journey from tree to church begins with the harvesters around the world who cut and prepare the leaves for their role in worship. The work needed to provide palms for Palm Sunday is so immense that it actually constitutes a full-time year-round job for some harvesters.

Thomas Sowell is one such palm harvester from Florida who has been helping to supply parishes with fresh palm leaves for more than five decades. Sowell began harvesting wild palm leaves from trees as a child to earn extra money in the springtime. Over the past several decades, he has grown his business into a palm supplier that ships the leafy branches to all 50 states and Canada.

Despite the growth in his business, Sowell says he tries to maintain his focus on the purpose behind it all.

“We try to do the best job that we can,” he told CNA. “Every bag that we send out to churches, every individual bag has been examined, cleaned – we go to extreme measures to make sure that everything we do for these churches is done in the honor of Jesus Christ.”

While there are more than 2,600 different species of palm that grow across the world, palm plants cannot survive outside of tropical and subtropical climates. Historically, parishes that could not source palm locally would instead substitute branches of another local tree such as olive or willow, although modern churches also have the option of sourcing palm fronds from other regions of the world.

In the United States and Canada, most parishes seek out suppliers who deliver fresh palms shortly before Palm Sunday, said Fr. Michael J. Flynn, Secretariat of Divine Worship for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Many of these parishes contact church goods suppliers such as Peter Munley of Falls Church, Virginia, who helps provide parishes year-round with supplies like candles and sacramental wine, along with palms for Holy Week.

Munley told CNA that in preparation for Palm Sunday, he works to deliver palms from their source to different parishes that place orders around the country. In addition to Florida, palms are sourced from Texas, California and elsewhere in the Southern United States, he said.

While nearly all of the palms Munley sells are individually pre-cut, church goods suppliers also helps to source decorative palms for altar centerpieces and larger palm fronds as well. Dealers also work to ensure that palms get burnt and ground into ashes for Ash Wednesday, for parishes that cannot burn the palms for ashes themselves.

Munley also stressed that although many American-based palm sources are not labeled as “eco-friendly,” the practices of many major U.S. palm harvesters are indeed environmentally sustainable.

“Our guys don’t kill the palm,” he said, adding that by sourcing palms from American harvesters as opposed to internationally-certified “green” farmers, they help to reduce the ecological impact of shipping and transportation.


Credit: Bohumil Petrik/CNA.

Sowell said that the palm trees he works with “are 100 percent wild.” He works with local ranchers and landowners to remove palmetto leaves from trees that grow naturally on local farmland.

Some of the trees Sowell harvests from have been producing palm leaves since he first started gathering palm leaves to sell as a boy.

“I know that there are trees that are still being cut today that I cut when I was twelve,” he said.

Originally, Sowell cut everything himself. Over the years, however, his growing cooperation with the caretakers who supply palm led him to focus more on preparing palms for church supply dealers and for shipment.

Cooperation with ranchers and landowners is critical. Sowell says the process of cutting, cleaning and preparing the strips of palm is incredibly labor intensive, and he could not complete it without local partnerships. “There’s no way that you could grow this much palm and just do it (alone). It’s hard.”

The work is so intensive that the Palm Sunday celebrations require an entire year’s work. “We work twelve months out of the year, in one aspect or another, for one day,” Sowell said.

He also supplies palm leaves for Eastern Orthodox Churches, which use a different calendar for Easter and Lent. After the celebration of Palm Sunday in the Catholic Church and other Western churches, “we’ll turn around in a couple of weeks and gather more palms so they’re fresh for the Orthodox,” he said.

The participation of Christians in Palm Sunday celebrations not only provides work and a living for Sowell and his employees, but financial support for the local ranchers who work with him.

“There are so many families that help us that can earn money in a way that otherwise they couldn’t.”

Ultimately, Sowell sees his job harvesting and preparing palm leaves – and the service he is able to offer to parishes across the country – as a blessing.

“There would have been no way we could have done this if it hadn’t been for God helping us,” he said.

 

This article was originally published on CNA March 16, 2016.

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3 Trackbacks / Pingbacks

  1. Here are resources on the 1984 consecration of Russia – Via Nova Media
  2. Pope Francis’ consecration of Russia and Ukraine to Mary: what it means – The B.C. Catholic – Holiday Helper
  3. THVRSDAY EDITION – Big Pulpit

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